Travel to Africa -- Bag recs needed

[kalogrias]

I'm going to Africa to visit my best friend (who is in the Peace Corps) this summer. I'll be there for 3-ish weeks (a little less), and I'm starting to think about what to bring, and what to pack it in. She said that whatever I have with me, I need to be able to carry. I'm not the strongest of people (though working on that), and I truly hate to carry things. Also, I am a bit of a clean-freak, so I know that I'll be wanting to bring umpteen changes of clothes (working on getting over that!), etc. So...do you guys know of any good bags that can work comfortably as a backpack, but which are still large enough to house 3 weeks worth of my stuff? Please let me know!

[Hello Kitty]

I would go to North Face or REI and get a nice mid-sized pack that fits you. Personally, it's not something I'd scrimp on if you're going to be carrying it a lot. I used a small one (excocet) for 3 weeks in europe and it was totally fine, but I re-wore and hand washed as needed. Sounds like an awesome trip! :D

[tlew12778]

We have rolling backpacks by RBH Sport that can turn into regular backpacks. My sister found them on sale at costco 2-3 years ago for like $35! Her DH bought one that was really really similar for over $130 (his is by Columbia though). I can't find a pic of ours online bc they stopped making them but they are similar to this:
http://gfx.luggageguru.com/images/ricardo/newsport/3225closb.jpg

We went for 2 weeks and there was more than enough room left over. I didn't even expand the bags where we could have.

Also, it depends on what season you go... if you go in the winter, you will have to bring more clothes to layer yourself and possibly a winter jacket. We were just there and it's the end of fall in S. Africa. DH had a north face jacket with him and I had a fall jacket with me. He was fine but I ended up buying a scarf bc I was freezing while on safari (not sure if you'll be doing that).

Remember that you can wash your clothes too. Also make sure to check with your airline for limitations. Our internal flights limited us to 20kg per person in soft bags.

[laura]

This is larger than I would recommend for 3 weeks, but this is just a sample "type":

http://a1472.g.akamaitech.net/f/1472/124/4h/images.ebags.com/images/products/67245_SQ250.jpg

My friend went abroad to Africa and took something like what's posted above. What she really liked about it was the zip-off front part which came apart as a separate 'daypack', as well as all the compartments and the sturdiness. I would probably take a smaller version of something similar, if I were you. She debated the whole wheel/no wheels thing and she was happy in the end she went without b/c there weren't a lot of places she could have easily wheeled the bag and they would have just added extra weight to her pack.

She organized herself with these packing cubes, as well:

http://a1472.g.akamaitech.net/f/1472/124/4h/images.ebags.com/images/products/5361_SQ250.jpg

[kalogrias]

Thank you to all of you -- I think I am definitely going to get those packing cubes...they look like they will help a lot. As for backpacks...I'm thinking that I might get a duffel with shoulder straps...I like all that are posted here, too...